Hogscare
by 082005
Summary: For young wizards who are too young to go to Hogwarts but whose parents may not have sufficient time to have them homeschooled. Featuring a pre werewolf bitten Remus.


**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter is the work of the author J.K. Rowling. I am simply borrowing Remus Lupin for this story. No harm done.

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**Hogscare**

Down in Diagon Alley near Gringotts, opposite Ollivander's in fact, is a traditional English country house with a beautiful garden and spacious rooms. It appeared very out of place in a street that was cluttered with narrow shops.

Wandering vaguely what it was, Remus Lupin followed his mother. She was rushing. What's the hurry? He thought.

"You'll be going to school tomorrow." His mother had told him.

"What's school?" He had asked.

"It's a place where you can learn and play with lots of other children." She had replied.

Was this the school she had been telling him about?

Their journey through Diagon Alley had not been an easy one with Mrs Lupin having to pull her son away from all the shop windows.It had been especially hard for her to pull him away from the brooms shop.

"You're way too young to buy a broom Remus." She had told him.

What she had not realised was that it was not the big broom on display that Remus had been staring at. It was the cover of a book behind the broomstick that had intrigued her son. For it showed the picture of a huge dog. The dog was howling as though in pain. Remus felt sorry for it and wondered what kind of story was toldin the book. But, as he couldn't read yet, he didn't know what the cover said.

Up ahead, the little English cottage loomed over them in its full size. The garden was filled with flowers. Remus wanted to reach out and touch them.

"No! Don't do that." His mother told him sharply. "You'll hurt them."

Remus took a breath of fresh garden air. The flowers did smell lovely but for some reason, he was getting dizzy. He started sneezing repeatedly, causing his mother to pull him through the garden even more hurriedly than before. By the time they had gotten through the front door, Remus's eyes were watering so much, it looked like he had been crying. He didn't like the flowers anymore.

"Please sign your name." Said the girl at the counter. She looked very young.

Mrs Lupin obligued, taking the little feather thing from the counter. She was writing very fast on a sheet of parchment.

Remus had seen the little feather thing being used by his parents at home. He'd even played with it and got himself all covered in ink because he'd tipped the ink bottle.

"What's your name, little boy?" The girl at the counter asked kindly.

"Remus." Remus replied.

"I'm Varonica. How old are you?"

"Five and two months. How about you?"

"I'm nineteen." Varonica smiled.

Remus had never known his parents' age, but if the young girl at the counter was already more than twice his age, then his parents must have been positively ancient.

"That will be ten galleons for the week." Varonica told Mrs Lupin, who was searching for her wallet in her handbag.

Remus looked around. There were two huge rooms to his left and right and a stair case leading upstairs somewhere on both sides of the hall. He wondered vaguely what was in the big rooms. He decided to investigate.

The room to his left had lots of tables, some bookshelves, plus toys, quills and parchment scattered everywhere. The room to his right had mats scattered everywhere and lots more toys. He liked this room. There were some children already playing in the room.

"Thanks. Hey! Remus? Oh dear."

"Don't worry madam. Your son has probably found our playroom already."

"Remus!"

Remus turned from the toy wand he had just found.

"Oh Remus, couldn't you at least warn me before you wander off like that." Said Mrs Lupin wearily.

"Mummy, look I can do magic." Remus told his mother excitedly as he waved the toy wand. It was able to produce small sparks, like fireworks.

"_Accio wand_." Varonica said immediately. "Sorry little Remus. This toy is very dangerous. You could hurt someone. I wonder how it got into the playroom in the first place?"

"Remus, Mummy is going to have to leave now but I will come and pick you up on Friday afternoon."

At this, Remus dropped the little glow in the dark dragon-in-an-egg he had just picked up.

He had been warned about this of course, but he had been so excited about going to London that he didn't complain.

"Promise mummy you'll be a good boy." Mrs Lupin embraced her son.

Remus nodded, avoiding eye-contact. His eyes were getting watery again.

"Don't worry little Remus, we'll have a lot of fun together and you'll make lots of new friends." A tall lady with hazel brown hair and big hoop earrings had come into the entrance hall.

Remus jumped because the lady had known his name without him telling.

"This is Mrs Beavens, our teacher." Varonica told Mrs Lupin.

"Take care Remus." Mrs Lupin smiled as she hugged her son one last time.

Remus watched as his mother left. Mrs Beavens went into the playroom to address all the other children while veronica stayed with Remus. His mother was leaving him for real this time. If only he had known that they were going to be parting in less than an hour. But he didn't know. At least, he wasn't willing to admit it. And as his mother closed the gate to his new school behind her, Remus felt very alone.

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**Author's Note:** This is my first Harry Potter fanfic.If you have time, please review before you leave. 


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